Chapter 33

Gretchen nodded her head to the music that was playing as she practiced her elemental magic of levitation. As she held the ball a few inches above her hand, she was able to roll it back and forth between her fingers. This made her calm; she breathed a sigh of relief. She had been anxious all morning and needed to calm herself. Magic was alwar a haven—at least it had been.

She heard a pounding on her dorm door; the anxiety quickly returned as the ball dropped to the floor.

Gretchen got up from her bed and answered the door. She was pushed back as the door swung open, allowing the person from the other side to storm in.

“Nothing you are doing is working!” Ophelia yelled.

Gretchen quickly closed the door and chanted a sound barrier spell over it. She couldn’t let Ophelia know that Ophelia intimidated her. She sucked in a breath and quickly shifted into a confident girl with nothing to lose.

“He blacked out, didn’t he? You were able to take him back to his room. You were supposed to be whispering things about yourself into his head while he was out. What happened?” Gretchen asked as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the door.

Ophelia sat in the chair by the desk and rested her elbows on her knees, then buried her head in her hands. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I started to at first, giggling and whispering his name. He was smiling, but then something happened. His face became tormented, and he started to toss and turn. I just stepped back for a moment and then he bolted upright from the bed.”

Gretchen nodded. “Then what happened after he was awake?”

Ophelia let out a frustrated grunt and lifted her head, “That’s when everything went downhill. I tried to remind him how good we used to be and at fir, st I c sold see him thinking about it, but then something in him changed. That skirt, wimpy, no-good mate of his has a tighter grip on him than I expected.”

“But you said for a moment he was considering it. He’s trying to fight it, but things are slowly pulling him away from his mate. You just need to keep working on him. His mate will no longer be an obstacle in your path to getting him back soon enough.” Gretchen said all this with confidence; if o believed it.

Ophelia breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” She got up from the chair and headed towards Gretchen.

Gretchen moved away from the door and started to turn when she felt Ophelia’s fingers sliding into her hair and gripping it before yanking her head back. Gretchen yelped but tried to remain calm—she knew that Ophelia would be able to smell her fear. She hated working with the wolves; they were always unpredictable and temperamental.

“You better be telling me the truth, or “I’ll come back and tear you into shreds. I may look small, but my wolf is fierce. I will have Hudson with or without the assistance of your magic,” Ophelia threatened.

Ophelia released Gretchen from her grip, opened the door, and left. Gretchen quickly shut the door and locked it. She even put a sealing protection spell on it just to be sure.

She hated this. All of it. Why did she have to be in the middle of all this? She just wanted to go to college and pretend to be normal for just a little while. But her family didn’t like that and as soon as they knew that she had picked the same college the hybrid was at, that’s when the plan started to come into motion. Why didn’t she pick a school that was farther away from her family?

*****

Vita breathed slowly. She was getting weaker and weaker by the moment. If something didn’t change soon, she was going to lose herself and there would be no coming back from it. She didn’t know what day it was, or what time. She couldn’t remember how long ago it was that she had talked with Amanda. Everything was a blur to her, and it all just melted together.

“Vita?”

She heard someone saying her name, but she couldn’t lift her head to see who. She felt a rough hand on her chin, pinching her face to lift it to look at them. She couldn’t open her eyes to see who it was.

“Vita, answer me.”

But she couldn’t. They had stopped feeding her and giving her anything to drink to punish her for not giving them what they wanted.

“Crap” was all she heard before she was alone again.

****

Artemis let out a howl as he rounded the corner and found where the fight was taking place. He surveyed his surroundings, looking for his mate. He was relieved when he realized that she was still in the vehicle with Tabitha. He jumped on top of the SUV that she was in and looked down on the remaining wolves that needed to be taught a lesson. No one messed with his mate.

Amanda could feel her wolf, Willow, wanting to take over. She could feel her eyes change from hers to Willow’s, seeing things the way a wolf can.

Tabitha looked at her friend and noticed her eyes were lavender. “Amanda, control your wolf. This isn’t the time for her to come out.”

“I’m trying,” Amanda told her. But her anxiety was growing and Willow’s want for control was growing too, pushing her farther back.

“Amanda, listen to me. Focus on my voice. You are stronger than you think. You have to gain control of her or else she will never respect you,” Tabitha advised her.

Amanda took Tabitha’s words to heart. Tabitha was right; she needed to gain control of her wolf, or they would never be able to build on their relationship and grow together.

There was an internal battle inside her as they both fought for control. Her fingers began to itch as her magic began to spark.

Tabitha looked down. “Amanda, control the magic and your wolf.”

But it was getting to be too much.

Tabitha reached across Amanda and pulled her door open, pushing Amanda out of the car and her behind her, hopefully away from the fight.

Amanda reached up and held her head between her hands. Her fingers were glowing as the power was building. “Tabitha, hide!” she yelled.

Tabitha started to run from the other side of the SUV and headed for Marco’s wolf. “Take cover!” Tabitha yelled.

Tabitha looked back one last time as she saw Amanda walk around the SUV—and then there was just a flash of green. A blast came rushing through everyone who was outside, throwing them all back and knocking them all out.

Everyone was down on the ground, including Amanda, as her eyes started to close and everything went black.


Fighting for my Mate

Mated to my Bully (Book 1)